Dispensing optician apprenticeship
Apprenticeship FAQs
An apprenticeship is a job where formal training is provided as part of the employment contract. This enables the trainee to develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to perform effectively in their chosen occupation – defined in the apprenticeship standard.
An apprenticeship course must include structured off-the-job training, which will take place before the end-point assessment, to help develop competence in an occupation. Off-the-job training is learning undertaken outside the normal day-to-day working environment.
The government requires employers to be at the centre of the process for designing and delivering apprenticeships and has specified that a trailblazer group should be comprised of a minimum of 10 different employers as members (in addition to any professional bodies, HE provider or trade associations) that is reflective of the range of companies which employ people in the specified occupation. Not permitted to lead the process, other organisations with an interest, such as professional bodies, training providers, industry training boards or potential assessment organisations should be invited to provide their input and contribute to the development of the apprenticeship standard.
Degree apprenticeships are a new type of programme already offered by some universities where students can achieve a full bachelor’s or master’s degree as part of their apprenticeship, without having to pay student fees. Degree apprentices spend part of their time at a HE provider (with flexibility as to how this is structured; for example through day release or block release working under a distance learning model) and part with their employer. Training costs would be co-funded by the government and the employer.
A degree apprenticeship structure is determined by the trailblazer group: employers, HE providers and professional bodies can come together to co-design a fully integrated degree course, designed specifically for apprentices. This would deliver and test both academic learning and on-the-job training. Alternatively, existing degree programmes may be used, where they meet the standard, to deliver the academic knowledge requirements of that occupation. This would be combined with additional training to meet the full apprenticeship requirements. There would be a separate test of full occupational competence at the end of the apprenticeship.
From 2016, all employers that have an annual pay bill of £3m and/or are connected to other companies or charities for Employment Allowance, which in total have an annual pay bill of more than £3m, ‘have’ to pay an Apprenticeship Levy each month. This payment is mandatory and cannot be returned to the employers if unused. Smaller employers do not have to pay the levy but may use it to provide training for their own employees.
Levy-paying employers can create an account on the apprenticeship service to gain access to their funds and to be able to control the levy funds to spend on apprenticeships, pay and/or stop payments to the training providers. Non-levy paying employers will share the cost of training and assessing their apprentices with the government in a ‘co investment’ scheme. The rate for co investment is five per cent financial contribution from the employers, and the government will pay the remaining 95 per cent towards apprentice training (up to the funding band maximum).
If there are no optical based apprenticeships, all levies paid by the optical profession will be invested in the government apprenticeship funding pot and lost from the sector; it will be utilised to fund apprenticeship training in other professions where apprenticeships have already been developed.
Each new course developed in the optical profession is still required to meet the General Optical Council (GOC) route to registration quality assurance and professional standards. Failure in this will result in candidates being unable to join the GOC register of optical professionals. Degree level apprenticeships are not in reality an easy route to a qualification; the same standard of study and assessment is required as in existing courses; however, this is also in conjunction with the ‘on the-job training’ element of the course.
This means that apprentices are assessed both vocationally and academically from the start. The level of supervision required is without doubt more intensive and regular reporting by the supervisor is required throughout the apprentice’s course. However, high levels of supervisor support is provided for this mode of training. Degree level apprenticeships are not designed or intended to replace existing courses, merely to offer an alternative mode of training for candidates to receive an approved qualification.